Moving On
by Child-of-the-Dawn
Summary: HBP SPOILER! Fifteen years after the war ends, Severus Snape meets an old allie who gives him what he needs to finally move on..NO SLASH


No idea where this came from, as usual. I do seem to be getting into a Severus mood. It's all your fault, Isis! giggle> Anyway, have fun reading!

Harry, Severus, Albus, and the whole mess JKR

absolutely nothing me

there, I said it sulk

oh, and Jo, in case your on one of your fan fiction explorations, I apologize profusely for my butchering of your characters. And when's that Albus-centric book coming out? puppy-dog eyes

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He knew he shouldn't be there.

He knew he had no right to stand there, quietly contemplating his life _now, _after everything he'd done. Regrets, he mused. Hadn't the man once told him that hindsight is 20/20? Yes, so many times he had wished the old man would of just offered him a lemon drop and been done with it.

Figures he'd only understand after he followed _those _orders. Figures he'd have to kill Albus Dumbledore to understand, at length, the truth for his continued existence. And his duty. Oh, it always came back to his duty.

"Good evening, Severus"

Goddamn that man for his perfect bloody timing, anyway.

"Harry." He said, with no amount of warmth, but no chill either. Black eyes turned to meet shining emerald ones.

Harry Potter, Severus decided, had done a lot of growing up both mentally and physically. The taint of the Dursley's treatment that had once made Harry small and rather weak looking had faded, most likely under all those years of Molly's cooking and his wife's. His hair, though, remained a steady reminder of James, much to Severus's quelled disgust. But it was his eyes that made the man, and Severus finally realized how people had always connected Harry to Albus ever since the latter's death. Harry's eyes were light and twinkling with amusement as he observed the former Professor's expression. Severus almost smiled. Dumbledore's man through and through, indeed.

"How's the motley mess?" He asked. Harry chuckled.

"Ginny's ready to have the twins any time now. Albus and James just got their letters and haven't stopped talking about Hogwarts since. Lily's doing well, cant wait for school."

"Does Albus still do that…thing." Severus asked, intrigued.

" Yes….its quite disturbing how much like him he is. Cockroach Clusters and Sherbet Lemons….I worry, Severus, I really do." Both men chuckled at that.

"Will you ever come back, Severus?" Harry said, serious now, eyes darkening to the Auror he'd been for fifteen years.

This was the question Severus had known he'd ask.

"I can't. I surprise myself by standing _here_ of all places." His hand reached out from his cloak to gently run along the edge of the white marble tomb, a memorial so cold and distant and _wrong _for the man it was made for that Severus sneered at the thing.

"It doesn't surprise me at all" Severus arched and eyebrow as Harry came up even with him and kneeled before the tomb. In his hand was a yellow drawstring bag that smelled strongly of….he smiled. Sherbet Lemons, how very Albus of the youngman.

" You knew him, Severus. You knew the real him, or at least part of the real him. What you did….Severus, what you did was the most courageous thing I've ever heard of. It takes courage to do what I did, yes, but lord…I couldn't have followed that order. I would have failed, blown my cover, and gotten myself and Draco killed because-"

" Because you adored him! Because you had so easily earned his love, boy!" Severus said, his calm snapping for a moment with all his anger," Courage would have been never to speak of the prophecy to Riddle, courage would have been to never fall from the light, courage would have been to shove Draco towards Albus and taken out as many Death Eaters as possible! I could have done that, and Albus could have released you from his spell and you two could have-"

"SEVERUS!" Severus stopped, panting, eyes wide and staring. Harry had stood and grabbed his shoulders, taking to staring at him with fury in his eyes.

"Don't, Severus." He said, releasing him and moving away to stand against the weeping willow to their left.

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live". He said softly, fingering the gold locket around his neck, it's 'S' symbol gleaming in the dying sunlight. "Albus told me that." Severus, at a loss for words, sunk to the grass in silence.

"You see, now?" Said Harry, still softly.

"Don't live in the dreams of what might-have-been. It gets you nowhere, trust me." And he held out his hand to the old wizard. Severus sighed and, after a moment, took it.

Harry smiled, that twinkle back in his eyes.

"Good man." He said, handing Severus a letter marked _'To Professor Severus Snape re: your old post _'.

"See you in September, Se-…Professor Snape." And with a cheery wave and a wink, Harry turned and strode down the hill towards the castle gates, humming a little song to himself in the twilight.

Severus watched him go with mixed feelings of annoyance, amazement, and something akin to resignation.

'Damn them both, anyway.'

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I hope they came out as IC as they were in my head….Oo;;;


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